Voting ought to be clear and simple. RCV is neither. Voting should give each citizen an equal chance to be heard. The
great American experiment was and still is our democracy. By my measure, the 2009 election was a failed experiment.

Fact: Instant-runoff voting doesn’t guarantee a majority winner. In the 2009 instant-runoff voting mayoral election in Burlington, Vt., the Democrat was favored to the progressive by a large 54 percent to 46 percent majority. But the progressive candidate won. In fact, it’s even possible for a candidate to win when a majority of voters favors an opposing candidate and the opposing candidate gets more first-place votes.

"We carefully examined voting in the 13 wards in Minneapolis to see if RCV contributed to broader participation based on actual vote returns obtained from the Minneapolis city clerk. Unfortunately, the evidence shows a clear pattern. Voters who were more affluent and white turned out at a higher rate, completed their ballots more accurately and were more likely to use all three opportunities to rank their most preferred candidates compared with voters living in low-income neighborhoods and in communities of color."